Freelance journalist and bookseller Mandy Lau was arrested by Hong Kong national security police on July 15, 2026, after officers raided the Have a Nice Stay bookstore in Hong Kong's Mong Kok district.
Police alleged that Lau and four others violated the city's Safeguarding National Security Ordinance by displaying items with “seditious intent” and selling publications with “seditious content.” Lau was later released on bail pending further investigation.
Police said that the bookstore displayed publications that incited hatred against the Hong Kong government, the judiciary, and law enforcement agencies. Officers seized a number of books during the operation, including “Let Only Red Flowers Bloom: Identity and Belonging in Xi Jinping’s China,” by National Public Radio journalist Emily Feng, according to news reports.
Lau co-founded the independent bookstore Have a Nice Stay with four other journalists in 2022 after they lost their jobs amid Hong Kong’s worsening press freedom climate. She has bylined reporting in the online magazine Leave Blank, which the bookstore launched in 2023 to “reclaim the identity of being journalists.” The bookstore said one of its missions was to promote journalism and literary reportage.
Hong Kong authorities have targeted journalists, publishers, booksellers, and independent cultural institutions since Beijing imposed the National Security Law in 2020 and the city enacted its homegrown Article 23 legislation in 2024.
The Hong Kong government did not immediately respond to CPJ’s emailed request for comment about the case.